David and I made a trip to Petco and Rural King today.  I must say that Rural King is one of my very favorite stores, especially this time of year.  They are putting out all their garden decors, lawn fertilizers,  compost, seeds, and other paraphernalia that a gardener needs.   I was in seventh heaven.  I found some seeds that looked interesting, we bought bedding for the chooks and the dogs and we found some compost manure for the rhubarb.   Rhubarb is a heavy feeder and needs to be fertilized heavily to produce good plants.  I am looking forward to some fresh rhubarb pie unlike the rhubarb pie I baked the other day from frozen rhubarb we bought at Appleworks.

It was a good, flaky crusted pie, but the rhubarb was cut into bigger pieces and didn’t smoosh down like my rhubarb does.  David liked it, though, and has eaten the whole pie himself, plus the little cinnamon rolls I made from the dough.

David does have a sweet tooth(that is if they were his real teeth!)

But back to Rural King.  We went to get the chicken coop bedding and they had the bedding stacked so high we couldn’t reach the top.  David said we could play Jenga and hope the rest of the bags don’t come tumbling down on our heads.  We found a clerk who climbed up and got two bags for us.  Why do they do that?

Here are the seeds I found.

Nasturtiums or as I like to call them Nasty Turtians.  Nasturtiums are edible although I have never eaten any.

Cucumbers are a must.  David loves fresh from the garden cucumbers.  I could take them or leave them, but I like to make him happy.

Pumpkins.  Last year we grew giant pumpkins, enough to give all the grandchildren one and have a few ourselves.  I’m hoping we will have good ones again this year.  The chickens have been fertilizing the garden all winter.

We use to call this Indian corn, but the PC police don’t want us to use that any more so it’s called ornamental corn.  If I were an Indian, I would be proud to have it called Indian corn because it is so unique and pretty, but that’s just me.

When I saw that I could grow pumpkins on a stick, well, I just had to have these seeds.  I am looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

Another thing I love about Spring coming is all the seed catalogs and Spring magazines that arrive in the mail.

One of my favorite magazines.  We actually took a trip and stayed at a bed and breakfast that was featured in this magazine.  It was a really nice bed and breakfast, but David and I decided it wasn’t for us as the owners kept visiting with us and asking us to eat at tables with strangers who we had nothing in common with and besides we wanted to have some time to ourselves and the worst part is we were told what time to eat breakfast.  We don’t like to arrange our time around someone else’s schedule when we are on vacation.  Sometimes we don’t feel like eating at 8:45 or whenever we were told to eat.    We did love the geese that came to the pond right outside our bedroom window and the paths through meadows we walked while we were there.  I would recommend it to those who love bed and breakfasts.  We are not a schedule following couple while on vacation.

One of my favorite catalogs.  We have purchased several things from this company to include wind spinners.  They have really nice wind spinners made of heavy duty metal.    I bought a clunker of a wind spinner from Rural King last year.  It doesn’t spin very well unless you have hurricane force winds.

I have my eye on these curtains for the dining room.  We are replacing more windows this year in the dining room.  After we get them in, I plan to repaint the room, put up new curtains as we have had the same curtains in there for over twenty years and I have my eye on this rug.

We shall see how it all comes together or if it will.  Plans are made to be broken or life gets in the way.   I love making plans though.

I celebrated a birthday this last week.  David bought me an ice cream cake from the Dairy Queen.  I was so happy.  He said, “I didn’t know if you would like it or not.”  Me, not like ice cream and cake?  What was he thinking?  I have wanted one of these for years.  I told him this is exactly what I want every year from now on.  I still have a piece waiting for me in the freezer.  I almost hate to eat it because I will have to wait a whole year before I get another one!

One of the catalogs I get is from Yankee Candle.  It’s really like a little present in the mail because several of the candles they show are scratch and sniff.  Look at this chocolate bunny candle.  How cute.

Marshmallow chicks candle.  It’s a scratch and sniff.

Bunny cake.  I am in love.

Jelly bean candle.  Okay, this one is getting ordered.  It smells just like jelly beans.  How do they do that?  Get those scents in the candles?   If you come into my house, don’t be surprised to smell jelly beans soon.

Yankee candle has so many cute things.  Good thing I have will power.   I don’t know where I would put anything else anyway.  I am not being paid to advertise Yankee Candle, I just love the company and its products.

Wildseed Farms.  A company based out of Fredericksburg, Texas.  They sell seed by the pound.  As you can see, I have already ordered some seed from them.  Laura Bush self-seeding petunias.  I am going to give them a try this Summer.

A pound of zinnia seeds.  Thousands of seeds that will go all over our property.  You really get your money’s worth buying seed this way.  This many seeds would probably cost a hundred dollars if you bought them in little packets.

I also bought an ounce of foxglove seeds.  Foxgloves are biennials so I may not see flowers this year, I don’t know.  Thousands of seeds in one ounce so I should have a few flowers from it.

I planted a little mini garden in a broken coffee cup.  Grass seed and little birds and a bird feeder.  I am loving it as it makes me know that Spring and green growing things are coming soon.  Winter never lasts forever although sometimes it seems to.

I have put out my Easter bunnies early this year so that I could enjoy them longer.  Easter is early this year.

I love Easter.  It means so much more than bunnies and chickens at our house.  We celebrate the risen Savior, Jesus Christ on that day.   He died for everyone, you know.  Not just Christians.

I have been studying First and Second Thessalonians in the Bible.  Paul wrote to this church about many things to include the rapture.  I love these two books and how they deal with sexual purity and how important it is for everyone.   After all, our bodies are our temples and if God indwells within us, we should keep our bodies pure from sexual sin.  I don’t think the world looks at it the same way, but it makes sense to me.    There is no mincing words about it from Paul, however.  Paul, who persecuted the early Christians became a different man once confronted with Jesus Christ.  From that day forward he was a follower and told many thousands about the hope that is in Jesus Christ.  I believe as Paul did, that Jesus is the son of God, came to earth to preach, teach and heal, died on the cross for everyone’s sins, took them upon himself.  He rose the third day.  Thousands saw him and after forty days he went to heaven where he is waiting for his father’s cue to come gather His church together in the clouds where we will live eternally with Him in heaven.  I truly believe this with all my heart, soul and body.  It makes much more sense to me than just living a few years on this planet and dying and that’s all.  Life means much more than that and we all have spirits that have to go someplace.

I didn’t mean for this to be a theology lesson.  It’s just who I am and what makes me who I am.

 

This is the next quilt I will be hand quilting.  I love the old fashioned look of it.

I hope you are anticipating Spring as much as I am.  When you live in a climate that changes every season, you look forward to the warmth of Spring after a cold, snowy Winter.  If you live in a constantly warm climate, how wonderful for you.  You didn’t have to scrape ice off your wind shield or slip and slide on icy walkways.  Here’s to warm, wonderful Spring.  Bye.